sin and sacrifice
by a warrior queen
Summary: If you seal darkness, then your light will blind us all. —Ur's children. Chapter 334.


**dedication: **To everyone who came to me upon reading the new chapter because they knew how it would destroy me. Thank you ;3;  
**summary: **If you seal darkness, then your light will blind us all.  
**notes: **Gray is my favorite FT character, you guys. He's second only to Uchiha Sasuke, from Naruto. I am so... devastated.

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**sin and sacrifice**

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**Prelude to Madness**

Nothing made sense.

Or, at least, that's what Lyon kept trying to convince himself of. Nothing made sense—everything was a blur—the world was all wrong—this was just a dream. He heard himself breathing hard, felt his limbs shake with fear and anxiety and inexplicable _anger_ but he didn't question himself why—not when he had the answer. Not when he didn't want to hear it echo in his mind, ring and ring and ring; reminding him of something he was _trying_ to pretend wasn't true.

He pursed his lips into a sneer, handling the enemies, freezing them, killing them, destroying them until there was nothing left.

Juvia's screams rattled his brain and Lyon felt the convulsion—like he's going to drop to his knees and let out every single one of his intestines.

Nothing made sense.

"_Gray!_

_Gray!_

_Gray!_

**_Gray_**_!"_

Lyon clenched his eyes shut and tried to regain his bearings—it wasn't true. It wasn't happening.

Behind him, Gray wasn't dead on the ground.

He took a gulp of air and turned to spare Juvia and Meredy a glance over his shoulder.

It wasn't true.

It wasn't happening.

Nothing made sense.

Gray was crumpled on the ground and Juvia was soaked in his blood.

Lyon swore everything he saw after that was as white as snow.

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**The Fool**

Lyon Vastia was a lot of things.

He prided himself in being Lamia Scale's top mage—second only to Jura, but he was Jura and he didn't count at all. He was a fine Ice-make mage and a young man with a good head on his shoulders. He made perfect tactics, saw through his enemies' defenses and he won battles left and right with a puff of his chest and a smirk on his lips.

But on top of all that, Lyon considered himself a fool.

He wasted a good amount of his life chasing a dream that was long dead.

He'd known it was dead—it was just something he _knew_ but refused to accept.

Ur was dead and that thing captured in the ice was Deliora; nothing more and nothing less. Yet he wasted years trying to melt the ice that he _knew_ was the only thing left of his master—his adoptive _mother_. And he didn't care; she deserved it all if she died at the hands of Deliora, right? And such a pitiful death, indeed. Turning into ice, forever in the space between the dead and the living.

And then he saw Gray again.

That fucking asshole.

What right did he have to return like that?

After leaving, after moving on, after getting Ur killed and thus destroying all of Lyon's dreams.

What right did he have to return and preach to him that Ur was still alive, forever in the shape of ice and melting it would kill her? Lyon knew—he didn't _care_ and god if Gray didn't piss him off. He just wanted to… To punch him, maybe even freeze him or coax him to give up his life as foolishly as Ur had.

But in the end, Gray had been right.

Gray had proved the victor.

And Gray had shown him the light—like all those obnoxious stories in the books. Gray with his resolve, and the feelings he could never let go, and his anger, his snark and the cobalt blue in his eyes when he'd glare at him as if demanding he open his eyes and stop being so goddamn _foolish_.

And then what?

Lyon's entire life changed; reshaped and warped into something… Something Ur could be proud of and Lyon would admit to himself that he had always wanted that.

And then what?

And then _what_?

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**The Sinful**

Ultear had sins and she drowned in them.

There was just this _rage_ she felt swallowing her insides without a single ounce of remorse, leaving absolutely nothing behind but a hollow vessel for it to manipulate. She was just so _angry _and sometimes she swore she never knew at _who_. For the longest amount of time, she was so sure it had been at her mother.

Because Ur moved on without her.

Because Ur had two boys that made her smile when her daughter—_she_, Ultear—was out, somewhere, being _tortured_ alive.

What right did her mother have to move on so easily?

And then she thought her anger was at Gray.

Because Gray was the baby. Because he was the cause, she'd heard, of her mother's death.

Ur had died before Ultear could even get a hand on her and kill her herself. And that—god, that made her insides crawl with fury. And he was so… So full of himself; with his angry gray-blue eyes and his sneer and his words that cut her to the very marrow of her bones. He was this fool that didn't know a single thing about life and the horrors it brings and he was trying to preach to _her_?

And then he vowed to seal her darkness.

As if he had the strength to carry it all away from her, as if he had the power to make it all go away. As if he _knew _anything.

But there had been a sliver of hope inside her that pulsed.

This idiot boy.

This idiot boy that her mother sacrificed herself for…

This idiot boy…

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**The End**

She heard the screams—so far and so foreign, but she heard them. And they sounded so devastated; filled with anguish that no one should ever feel—piercing and so full of _pain_.

"_Gray!_

_Gray!_

_Gray!_

**_Gray_**_!"_

And it all clicked in Ultear's mind like a tornado—destroying everything, every thought, every decision until it was as clear as the light that something was _wrong_. And she doubled over, gasping and convulsing as she let out all the stomach fluids her body pushed out and she's gasping, chest heaving, mind pulsing.

"I'm coming," she whispered, staggering to her feet and running.

She destroyed the small dragons left and right, her concentration slowly strengthening because something inside her told her her boys needed her. And if she was such a worthless human being, the very least she could do was protect them—save them and take care of them because they were everything good and she… God she was so despicable and…

Ultear screamed, running towards where she was so sure she didn't want to go because seeing what she'd find scared her.

But when she arrived… When she saw the crazed look in Lyon's eyes as he killed and killed without any mercy… When she saw the telltale of tears threatening to prickle his eyes… When she saw Juvia so soaked in blood that couldn't possibly be hers…

When she saw Gray…

"No… No… _No_!"

And Ultear was sprinting towards Gray, sliding onto her knees and ripping her tights and drenching herself in his blood. Tears streamed down her eyes because Gray shouldn't be dead—Gray was so… So stubborn and stupid and he can't die!

"Gray!"

She called his name out because she refused to believe he was gone.

But there was no reply and there was no rise and fall to his chest and there was no other way of seeing his stupid smirks and that anger and sadness in his eyes unless she brought him back herself. Sin and sacrifice and a broken promise because she had once sworn she'd never manipulate living things when Gray Fullbuster growled in anger that it was wrong.

Ultear squared her shoulders, stared at the blood, stared at the holes that littered his body and stared at Gray's closed eyes, and began.

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**The Lovers**

Meredy refused to believe it.

"Ultear—Ultear _no_!"

She dived towards her and Ultear was quick to shove her off, dark eyes clouded with her own tears and anger and sadness and concentration. Slowly, Meredy watched her turn towards Juvia.

"Hold her. And don't you dare let her go."

"Ultear," Meredy called out, trying to wring herself free of Juvia's grasp.

"I am doing what I feel is best," Ultear murmured, smoothing out Gray's hair. "These boys are not related to me by blood but they are my brothers. They are my mother's children and I will protect them in any way I can."

Meredy collapsed to her knees, sobbing and refusing to accept that Ultear—the woman that saved her, this incredible woman with such power at her fingertips was going to sacrifice herself in the way Meredy knew she was. Gray wouldn't like it, she wanted to scream, Gray would be destroyed upon being brought back to find out Ultear was dead in his place.

But that wouldn't stop her, and Meredy knew.

Behind her, she heard Juvia sobbing, shaking and sobbing and so far gone.

She could break out of her grasp, Meredy knew… But then what?

"I'm going to die," Ultear mentioned, "And I am fine with this. But you… Meredy, you're going to watch over these two for me. You're going to make sure they stay alive."

There was a blinding flash of light and Meredy screamed Ultear's name.

There was no reply.

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**The Survivor**

Gray came back with an army of dragonoids destroyed, around him.

His head pulsed and he coughed out blood, splattering it all over his already bloody body. He furrowed his brow, sitting up and patting himself because… This blood… There was so much of it? Was it… Who's was it?

Who the hell died?

"G-Gray?"

He looked up, his eyes wide as Meredy, Juvia and Lyon stood over them, tears running down their cheeks, blood splattered all over them and this air of sadness and regret in the air.

"Wh… What happened?"

Juvia dropped to her knees, hugged him close to her body and cried in a manner that made him assume she had lost something so close—so precious, so loved—that it caused his own heart, beating so slow, to hurt for her. He looked up at Lyon and at Meredy, not understanding a single thing and the music of a war still happening in the background.

His eyes land on Meredy as something hit him.

Where there was a Meredy…

"Where's Ultear…?"

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_end._


End file.
